My Beginnings

Hello all, here we go.  My name is Scott and I have been making cured meats for several years and have been studying this for a long time.  How long, well I was reminded today after telling someone else last night at dinner when I got started doing this or thinking about it.

It was after stopping at a small Italian grocery store in Magna Utah.  I was looking to purchase some fresh sausage that these folks were known for and an older gentleman asked me if he could help me.  After a short conversation with me, he could tell that I have very limited experience with the type of products he made there in the back of the store.  He asked me to try a small slice of meat (some sausage type product) and I told him it was great.  After disappearing briefly and returning with a small sample wrapped and telling me that it was mine to keep, he told me to enjoy it and to come back.  Little did I know just what I had and proceeded to go home and make a red sauce with it.... it was sopressata.  It did however improve the tomato sauce I made and I decided at that time that I would definitely be back for more.

It was a struggling time of learning to cook for me.  It was in the early 80's and I didn't need to learn how to cook as my wife did a very good job with this but somehow I felt that it was important and I wanted to learn.  I would watch PBS television on Saturday mornings because there were a few cooking programs that I found interesting, one being The Frugal Gourmet with Jeff Smith.  I thought he was a bit quirky but non-the-less, informative.  He was doing a program about three ancient cuisines including Chinese, Greek and the Romans.  I found it interesting and that led to his next series about Italians which I watched every one of.  During these, he showed a few basic sausage demos about dry-cured meat products which perked my interest.  At that time, there was very little written about the subject that I could find.  The Internet had not come along yet and I didn't have much to go on.  I tried to go to the store several times in Magna to talk to the older gentleman that had given me the sample but I never seemed to show up when he was there.  This just would not come together for me.

I started researching how to make beer and did that for a while to satisfy my curiosity for making something.  That was rewarding but with penalties the next day after reaping the rewards.  I then started researching cheese making.  This is something that I had people to learn from.  I lucked into two customers that were cheese producers and through much time and many question and answer sessions, I learned the basic principals of making cheese and have at this time made many varieties of cheese with great success as far as I am concerned.  I need a cave if this is to continue and I don't have a cave at this point but have plans for this one day.

About 2003, I got my hands on a book about curing meats.  It was a small book put out by the Morton Salt Company that had basic instruction about using their salt products in making cured meats.  This small yellow book was like a present from heaven to me and I think I made every product that was described in the book.  I needed more.

I found more books and then I stumbled across a website written by Len Poli.  Len's website today, is not current and seems at this time to be only a fragment of what it was at one time.  I did not trust that the information on the website was true but I tried to contact Len and low and behold, I reached him.  He at that time was very genuine and was also very stern about the information and direction he gave me.  I trusted Len and to this day still use his basic formula on some items I produce as a starting point.  The basics are just that but non-the-less, the most important part of the equation.  The rest is style, flavor and regional variation if you will.

This blog is not a tool for me to teach you how to make your own cured meat products.  Nor is it meant to be a "bragging board" for me.  It is however a record of what I am doing in my cured meats endevor and what will be available for you to try if you wish. 

I have been making and enjoying a variety of different cured meats for several years now.  I have been sharing it with a select few neighbors, family and friends for some time but many have encouraged me to branch out a bit with this endevor.  So, with some reluctance I will do so but it will come at a price.  I will be working on that over the next several weeks and will come up with the plan.  As for now......enjoy and go out and purchase some cured meats, take notes and see what you like.  You are more that welcome to comment and tell me what you like that you have tried and what brand it was.  I have spent much money and time trying everything I can get my hands on and to date, I do have favorites but you may be suprised at what I think is good.....

Lets hear what you like and have to say.........

Scott